A blog about my experiences with Manos The Hands of Fate as the only surviving cast or crew willing to talk about it. Author of "Growing Up With Manos The Hands Of Fate" and producer of the sequel "Manos Returns"

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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

My dad and I have a pretty weird relationship. Honest to God. I know, I know. Everyone says their family is weirder than everybody else's and it's true that I've heard some really bizzare family tales but I just need to know that mine is not a regular family type story. I mean, seriously. I don't see myself as a drama queen or someone who is insecure enough to inflate things to a degree that the story is unrecognizable to anyone else, so I think I'm fairly on target with my statements.

He feels so fragile in his love. I know he loves me but there is so much history and pain and separation in it that we don't know how to be. We just dance along the edges and surfaces. How is it that a 54 year old woman becomes a child in her heart when she sees her dad? How is it that our conversation seems so at ease and yet hides such depths of things unsaid. It's a test. Don't you see? For all of us. The last two times I saw my dad was by chance at Safeway. Once in produce and once in the meat dept. We chatted and kept shifting to allow other shopper to work around us. Today, I saw him a third time as I worked in my home studio on paintings, I looked out and saw him slowly drive by. I ran out hoping he would go around the block and come back so I could flag him down. Waiting in the cold without my jacket because I didn't want to miss him. I saw him on the corner, hesitating, while I went into the road to wave. That is our relationship. It's all by chance. So much love that has no way to be expressed. No freedom to just spend time together. I cherish it because it is all I have with my dad.

Manos: The Hands of Fate is our connection now. It is really the one thing that gives us permission to be together. Ever. So when I say I love Manos, believe me, I mean it.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Greetings Manos Fans.
Today, I would like to introduce you to a guest writer, Matias Nicieza. Matias lives in Spain and has been a Facebook friend for some time and a Manos fan for much longer. He came up with an idea for me to list the top 15 reasons why "Manos Rocks". I thought that was a great idea and I posted on The Official Manos: The Hands of Fate Fan Club asking for listing ideas. In the meantime, he sent me his own list of 13 reasons why Manos Rocks. It was so good, I thought I would share it, unedited. He wanted me to let you know that this particular list is devoted only to the film itself and doesn't include the community of wonderful people united by Manos fandom. That's a whole other list!
Next post will be the list the fans are working on. Feel free to chime in. Why do YOU think Manos Rocks?

For an amateur production, it’s actually pretty
well made. Believe me, I know
my stuff. I’ve watched a good number of amateur movies, and collaborated in
quite a few. In that respect, I’d say Manos blows most of them off the water
both technically and narratively. It has a well-sustained plot, pretty good
continuity (including color and light being consistent from shot to shot –with
the exception of the borrowed snake footage, that is- something really unusual
in this kind of production) and, contrary to popular opinion, the camerawork is
quite good and stays in focus. Just check the restored version. And the sound
quality is also pretty good, despite some unfortunate cases of dubbing (hello,
Debbie).

It’s about a cult. This is, of course, totally subjective, but
I’m a sucker for movies about twisted religious cults. Everything from the
original The Wicker Man (I refuse to watch the remake, thank you very much) to
Beneath the Planet of the Apes. So, I was born to love Manos.

The ending. Yes, for a lot of people this is the final nail in the coffin, so your
mileage may vary. But for me, the fact that they dared to do something this
creepy and downbeat in 1966, with the Studio System and the Hays Code just
making its exit, is quite remarkable. If made in Hollywood, the producers would
have forced a happy ending on it, thus destroying the achievement.

The dreamlike quality of it all. The effect watching Manos produces, is of
witnessing a movie made on Mars. Out of this world. It has the feeling of a
dream (or should I say nightmare), which makes it captivating despite all its
shortcomings, or in fact because of some of them. Dreams don’t have total
coherence, and don’t need to.

The found footage-like look. MST3K said that every frame of the movie
looked like someone’s last known photograph. Which, to me, just adds to the
eerieness of it. There’s just something about that look (usually believed to be
8mm) that I find hypnotic. And it makes it work like a neat time capsule.

The setting. Particularly the altar/columns area, which is like watching a cross
between a Church of Satan ritual and a 1920s silent film extravaganza. Manos
does play a lot like a silent, despite having sound and dialog. The stylized
acting of Tom Neyman as The Master helps.

The music score. It’s a really excellent jazz/easy
listening/bossa nova blend. Some parts may seem at odds with the images, but it
works for a movie that’s well described by the word “odd”. Even the
much-maligned “haunting Torgo theme” was in the style of horror movies of the time.
Just check the beginning of Hammer’s The Revenge of Frankenstein, which
includes a few notes that seem to be announcing the arrival of our favorite
big-kneed henchman. And “Forgetting You” is a terrific love song.

The art. Apart from playing the Master, Tom Neyman did provide the art pieces we
see through the movie, and the Master’s robe. Which all add to the atmosphere.
We can believe this is a real cult, with all that hand symbolism. And the robe
is quite a sight. One of my favorite pieces of horror wardrobe, ever.

Diane Mahree. It’s not fair to judge her acting since her voice was dubbed, but gosh,
did that woman have screen presence. She made the camera fall in love with her.
And Torgo, too.

The Master. Manos is frequently criticized for its acting. But there are two
performances that I genuinely consider to be more than half-decent. Tom
Neyman’s is one of them. His previous experience on stage (on more than one
kind of stage – more on that later) does show. I don’t know if that was the
intention, but his performance does channel both Boris Karloff in The Black Cat
and Christopher Lee’s Dracula to me. He had great presence and became an
unforgettable villain.

Torgo. Who doesn’t love Torgo? Puffy knees aside, he’s a character to pity. He
may be part of a demonic cult (probably reluctantly) but all he wants is a
little love. Like everyone of us. He may be creepy but he’s also an underdog to
root for. And, of course, John Reynolds is that other decent piece of acting I
referred to. I do believe that he could have had a career in movies as a
reliable character actor. Which makes his sad ending twice as unfortunate.
Imagine him working under a professional director with real talent for actors.

"Well,
whatever it is you're not doing, go don't do it somewhere else." The
necking couple scenes are useless and would be better off excised from the
movie. Except for the fact that one of them includes this line. Don’t tell me
it’s not a great quote.

The
Master’s speech. “O Manos, thou of primal darkness…” This is my
favorite scene in the movie by far, ever since the first time I watched it. It
does have all the flavor, mannerisms, and inflections of a real sermon/prayer,
of no matter what religion, which is what makes it so effective and one of the
creepiest moments of the show. Of course, years later I learned through Jackey
two things that make it even more awesome: that Tom Neyman was at one point an
ordained minister, which explains why he does the scene so perfectly, and even
more amazingly, he did write the whole speech himself, to have something to say
during a scene that, in the script, only required him to stand there and
display the robe. So, with anyone else than Mr. Neyman in the role, my favorite
moment from the movie and one of the main reasons I’m a fan of it would have
never existed. At all.

It’s been called the “worst movie ever made” – and Jackey Neyman Jones is not only one of its last

She played the part of the little girl Debbie in Manos, The Hands of Fate in 1966 and today, Jackey, an artist living in Oregon,
lovingly tends to the flame of Manos—with her new book, Growing up with Manos
The Hands of Fate, BearMedia Publishing,
foreword written by Joel Hodgson creator of MST3K, and she is making
public appearances at film festivals, conventions, book signings and screenings
of the remastered version of Manos: The Hands of Fate.